Damselfly Nymph

This is a
nymph of a damselfly which is closely related to dragonfly but generally
smaller and more delicate. Damselflies lay their eggs directly into water and
sometimes on aquatic plants.

Damselfly
nymphs are carnivorous and feed on other small aquatic insects, crustaceans and
even small fish. They use their extendable pincer-like jaws to pierce through
unsuspecting preys that come too near.

Damselfly nymph's overall appearance resemble that of an adult. Unlike
larvas, nymphs do not undergo the pupal stage, instead, their final molt turns
them directly into adults. We found 2 of this nymphs in our newly setup tank.
We believed that the damselfly eggs come together with the new plants we
purchased for the new aquascape.

We have a
tough time catching them because they are very agile and swim really well. The
nymphs have grown to about 2.5cm in length when we found them. They have most
probably eaten quite a significant number of shrimps to gain to that size.

Lesson
learnt. We really need to wash and clean the plants properly before using them
for our aquascape to avoid unnecessary troubles and lost of livestocks.
However, cleaning does not guarantee a 100% safe, clean plants. But it can help
to minimize the chances of having damselfly/dragonfly eggs and snail eggs
caught on them. Cleaning also help to remove algae which may cause problem when
the new tank is under the cycling process.